


You're Like a Sunday Morning (I've Come Home)

by hazhooki, LykaiosArcturus



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, so its technically a mermaid au but its based on orefuro so, some of them are mermaids and some of them are not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 19:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2037321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazhooki/pseuds/hazhooki, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LykaiosArcturus/pseuds/LykaiosArcturus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei has encountered many things in his morning jogs, a mermaid is not one of them</p><p>(Orenchi no Furo Jijou AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Like a Sunday Morning (I've Come Home)

Each step he takes is filled with determination, calculations running through his head as he takes deep breaths, his lungs burning for air. This is Rei’s everyday life: he wakes up on the fifth ring of his alarm, stretches enough to chase away the soreness of a long sleep, and gets out of bed. He eats breakfast, just enough to last him as he goes for his early morning jog. He appreciates this about life, he does not wish for any spontaneity nor does he reject it. He remembers the distance he ran yesterday and calculates if he can beat it today, if distractions would not deter him from his goal.

Rei looks to the side, to appreciate the early morning sun as it rises over the horizon. If anything, he’s learned that clichés are cliché for a reason. He takes a deep breath as his eyes land on a figure on the beach.

Each step he takes is not done with calculation, but with as much confidence he can possess, as much curiosity that courses through him as he jogs over to this boy, his upper body sprawled over the sand and his legs in the water. This boy, with his blond hair and sunburned skin and dry lips, looks close to death.

The waves lap at Rei’s shoes as he walks around the boy and tries to come up with an appropriate course of action to take—he’s not breathing, and neither is the boy, and Rei’s pulse may or may not be pounding against his skin, thoroughly circulating the dread and anticipation all throughout his system until he can’t hear much else aside from the drumbeat of his heart.

What does one do when one finds an unconscious person on the beach?

Rei’s phone is on him _somewhere_ , maybe a pocket, he doesn't know—what he does know is that he should call the police or a hospital or anyone, really, but instead, he crouches, far enough from the body (Rei is almost confident in that conclusion, that this is a body and not a person) that the waves no longer wet his soles but close enough that if he were to reach out with a finger, he… could… _touch_ —

The body—no, the _boy_ —suddenly moves, the slightest twitch of back muscles and fingers that if Rei had not been paying close attention, the movement would have been totally missed.

(This is Rei, of course. He always pays close attention.)

The boy’s head rises, hair and cheek decorated with sand, and Rei falls back in shock.

Somehow, he finds his voice. “H-hey--” he starts, but cuts himself off as the boy reaches out, wraps his hand around Rei’s ankle.

The boy says something, but his words are whispers and his voice is too soft and weak. Rei gulps before he moves closer and grabs the boy’s wrist, a sort of assurance.  He knows he should be moving quicker--this boy’s life may rest in his hands--and so he steels himself.

“You’ll be okay.”

Rei kneels on the sand, tugs on the boy so that his body leans against Rei. Rei twists and turns, gently tugs on the boy’s wrists as he feels the boy’s body warm against his back. He feels deep breaths coming from the other; Rei sighs in relief. “I need you to wrap your arms tight around my neck. Can you do that?”

Rei feels the boy nod and tighten his arms, not enough to rob Rei of his air. Rei starts to stand, but he struggles as the boy is dead weight on his back. He reaches behind him for the boy’s legs, saying, “Please—your legs--” but his hand brushes against something scaly and warm to the touch.

Rei almost drops the boy in surprise, catches him just before he hits the sand. And that’s when Rei sees it.

Instead of legs, the boy has a _fish tail_.

-

Rei silently stands in the doorway, watches the boy (mermaid, he thinks--no, wait, mer _man_ ) splash around in his tub, and wonders when the dream will end. He has to meet with a friend in the afternoon and if he wakes up late… well, let’s just say that friend will not be very pleased.

“You look healthier,” he comments, trying not to sound awkward even while he fidgets awkwardly in his awkward position by the awkward doorway and.

The boy-- _merman_ smiles at him, a sunny cheery curl of his rosy lips that Rei can’t help but feel enchanted by the expression. “I feel much better now,” the boy mumbles as he makes mini fountains with his hands. “Thank you.”

“Y-you’re very welcome, um, uh,” Rei stammers; he adjusts his glasses, pushes them up the bridge of his nose, and rubs at the back of his neck. “What’s your name?”

“What’s _your_ name?” the merman asks back, tucking his chin over the side of the bathtub, his hands on either side of his face as he curls in a clearly impossible way that his tail splashes about right behind him. He smiles again, wider this time, showing off pearly whites and deep dimples and it’s hard to answer when Rei can’t stop staring at him.

Eventually, though, Rei manages a “Uh, um, I-I-I asked you first.”

“But if I tell you my name before I know yours, I’m gonna die.”

Rei’s eyes go wide. “What? Why?”

“And now that you’ve taken me out of the seawater, you’re gonna have to take care of me forever, lest you, um...” The merman submerges himself to the nose, looking like he’s trying to look for the right words to say with how his eyes dart from one spot to another. “Um. You. Lest you summon! Th-the, um...”

Rei’s apprehension melts into confusion, and then exasperation.

“Oh, I know--lest you summon the curse of the gods of the seas! By taking away one of his--”

“My name is Rei, and you are clearly joking,” Rei cuts him off with a scowl, folding his arms across his chest in slight irritation. “I bet your tail isn’t even real.”

“It is!”

Rei strides into the bathroom and right into the merman’s personal spice in two quick steps, hovering menacingly as he goes to grab the fish tail. “It is _obviously_ just made from silicone, and--”

An embarrassing moan rips from the merman’s lips, and Rei jumps back in shock, momentarily forgetting that he has yet to let go of the tail and so accidentally pulls on it further, causing the merman to make even more sounds that should _really_ be kept in a bedroom.

“I am so sorry! Oh my god I am so sorry oh my god oh my _god_ \--” Rei stammers as his ears start to burn, the blush spreading easily through his skin; he promptly walks out of the room, face buried in his hands and his gait slightly crooked.

The merman stares blankly at nothing. “My name’s Nagisa, by the way!” he shouts back.

Whoops.

**Author's Note:**

> toasterization: EXCITED INHUMANE SCREECHING (❁´▽`❁)
> 
> lykaiosarcturus: SILENT SCREAMING whispers everyone should read orefuro


End file.
